


Welcome to the Real World

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Marauders' Era, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-05-17
Updated: 2007-05-17
Packaged: 2019-01-19 16:20:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12413661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: It's Lily's 7th year at Hogwarts, and she gets an unpleasant taste of the 'real world' when her father becomes deathly ill, and she begins to contemplate life after Hogwarts. The Dark Lord is rising, and if James Potter asks her out one more time she just might scream. But has he changed? LJ SBOC RLOC





	Welcome to the Real World

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

Disclaimer: not mine... 

heh, Don't ask why I'm posting ANOTHER fic... hehe. I actually wrote it a while ago and just found it now laying around somewhere so I typed it. I must have been feeling all emo or something for this first chapter. Oh well... The whole thing won't be like this. r&r I'll be happy, and give you cookies.

* * *

Lily Evans glared at her transfiguration book, biring at a loose hangnail nervously. _How am I going to be able to have this down pat by the time we take our NEWTS?_

"Eww, get that _thing_ off of the table Lily! It's almost dinner time." 

Lily carefully marked her page in her book and closed it as she breathed deeply in an attempt to keep her temper under control. 

"It's a book, Petunia. On the history of transfiguration. I _could_ teach you--" 

"No way, I don't want to learn about your weird "talents". Help me set the table; Dad's coming home tonight." She put sarcastic air quotes around "talents" and meant ' _you_ set they table' by 'help me set the table.' 

Lily pulled out her wand and happiness surged through her; she'd just become of age and now practiced her magic as often as possible. 

"Fine then," Petunia said as she filled a bowl with water for her cat, Resputen. True to his name, the cat was not a pleasant thing at all and only liked Petunia. 

Lily had just finished setting the table and putting a charm on the door that said 'Welcome Home Dad!' in colours that changed from one end of the spectrum to the other when the scraping sound of a key turning in a lock could be heard coming from the general direction of the front door. Lily and Petunia both ran to meet their long-awaited parents and both gasped at the same time at the sight. 

Lily was shocked into speechlessness at the sight, but Petunia managed to find her voice, however weakly. "Daddy... what happened?" 

For their father was not the proud dark haired man they both remembered. The first thing Lily had noticed was that he was hunched into a wheel chair and all of his healthy brown hair was gone. Next she noticed that he was frightfully pale and thin. 

"Lily, please help your father get up these few steps and into the house. Then there's something we need to speak to you girls about." 

With an odd sense of detachment, Lily pulled her wand from her pocket and in moments she'd gotten the wheelchair into the house and they were all gathered in the living room. 

"What happened?" Petunia asked, looking to be on the verge of tears. 

Lily attempted to say something but her voice wasn't working. The girls' parents looked at one another and Mrs. Evans put her hand on her husband's. 

"We had hoped that it wouldn't be necessary to inform you girls of the situation. Unfortunately, though, it has not improved, but declined and we feel we've made a mistake in not telling you two sooner... It came on so quickly and..." She trailed off, close to tears herself. 

"What?" Asked Lily numbly. 

Their father spoke for the first time, and the sound that left his lips wasn't his own cheerfully good-natured voice, but a weary and cracking sound, as though he had aged several years over his leave. 

"I have been diagnosed with bone cancer. They wanted to keep me at the hospital and possibly extend my life for a few months, but I told them I'd much rather stay with my two beautiful daughters and their wonderful mother." His once brilliant green eyes now held a dull grayish tint and he failed at his attempt to smile, only managing to barely lift the corners of his mouth. Lily turned to her sister in disbelief but was met by a pained expression. In moments, it turned contemplative, and she finally spoke again. 

"But wait-- Lily's a witch... she can cure cancer... can't you?" The last part she directed at Lily with a despairing amount of hopelessness lacing her voice. Lily stared for a second, racking her brain for any possibilities before shaking her head solemnly when she remembered something she had read in a school text book. 

"Many muggle diseases, such as HIV, cancer and similar diseases (see page 653, Aids and the Black Plague: A Genealogical Correlation) are ineffectual to Wizard Kind and there have been very few cases among magical beings. Therefore, no further research has been conducted in finding cures for such diseases..." 

"Witches and Wizards are immune to cancer so there's no magical cure... I'm--I'm so sorry..." Unable to contain her grief, she ran blindly to her room and jumped on to her bed. Burying her head in her pillow, she cried, body wrenching with every sob. 


End file.
